Fulcrum type jar cap remover



Oct. 10, 1950 K. LEVY FULGRUM TYPE JAR CAP REMOVER Filed Nov. 30, 1946 Kua'r INVENTOR- Levy Patented Oct. 10, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE The subject of this invention is a new and improved implement for readily and conveniently removing caps or covers from jars, bottles or other containers, regardless of the various kinds of all the non-screw-thread type caps encountered in the pantry or elsewhere.

In the field of vacuum-cap removal, in connection with which the new implement has been found to be particularly eflicient, there are three general classes of caps. All these are usually of metal. There is the familiar crimped cap such as is used on bottles of beer and other beverages, and there are the two well-known variations of the non-crimped cap, each in the form of a shallow cylinder. The latter caps ordinarily have their principal use in topping glass containers for jellies, condiments and various other foods having to be packed in hermetically sealed containers. One of said variations is a capwhich is circumierentially beaded or otherwise inturned on the bottom of its side wall or skirt, and sometimes also at its top. The other variation is the same as just described, except that beading or the like is omitted at the skirt bottom and generally also anywhere else on the cap, with the result that when the cap is of metal, and of very thin metal, as is customary, the skirt at its bottom closely hugs the neck or other upper portion of the container, and, due to the thinness of the skirt wall, presents only a minute shoulder around said container portion.

The present invention satisfies the objects intended to be attained in providing an opener for containers which shall have the advantages above mentioned, while at the same time it shall be sution, the invention-is embodied as a unitary metal stamping from standard width strip stock, such as steel, capable of being produced by the single action of a comparatively simple dye and hence one of low cost.

Another feature of the invention is that oer- 15 tain instrumentalities of the new implement are fortuitously so arranged that, at the opposite ends of the implements, other instrumentalities are conveniently present, for opening containers,

such as paint cans, spice jars and the like having downwardly inserted covers held in place very tightly because of force fit in the container.

A further feature of the invention is that an implement as above-is provided which will not damage vacuum-sealed capsor covers, so that and of the objects and advantages thereof, reference will be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, and to the appended claims in which the various novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the now favored embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 illustrates the implement being applied for removal of a container cover of the bottominturned or beaded-bottom type.

Fig. 4 shows the implement being applied for removal of a container cover of the thin-bottom kind.

Fig. 5 shows the implement being applied to the top of a beer bottle or the like for cap removal.

Referring to the drawing more in detail and now particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the implement shown, marked generally II), comprises a main plate member II, having special shapings along its edges and including at various points peripherally of the same two pairs of struck up tongues. The tongues of one of said pairs constitute claws I2 and I3, and the tongues of the other pair also constitute claws, but these last in the form of hook-over lips I4 and I5.

The claws I2 and I3 provide a pair of fulcrum and force-delivering or lift members, respectively, when the implement is applied to a container cover of the type having its skirt beaded or otherwise inturned, all as shown in Fig. 3. l

The lips I5 and 14 provide a pair of fulcrum and force-delivering or lift members, respectively, when the implement is applied to a container cover having a skirt bottom snugly lying against the neck of the container to provide merely a very thin shoulder at the bottom of the cover, all as shown in Fig. 4.

The claws I2 and I3 desirably, if not essentially, have certain special characteristics, as will later be explained; and the same is true in regard to the lips I4 and I5.

At a suitable point along the length of the main body I I of the implement a cut-out I! of familiar outline is also advantageously included, this for use in removing the crimped cap I8 of a beer bottle I9 or the like, as illustrated in Fig. 5.

Due to thestaggered relationship of the claws I I2 and I3 and a like relationship of the lips l4 and I5, there are provided between each of such these latter can be used over and over again with the assurance that with reuse, a tight fit, thereby to preserve the food or other contents of the container, will be obtained.

For further comprehension of the invention,

pairs and at the ends of the implement, a pair of curvilinearly projecting portions 2!] and 2|,

and also, alongside each claw and lip, a convexly curvilinear edge-subdivision, these last mentioned formations marked 22, 23, Lil, and 25 respectively.

. As indicated inregard to the, projections 20 and 2 l, which may be said to be circularly curved about radii of different lengths, the curvature presenting portions 22 through 25 may be of different curvatures relative to the projections 28 and 2E and even as between the portions 22 through 25 themselves. The same die which stamps out the implement may also act to give a modification of thickness as between the marginal portions of the projections 20 and 2| or as between one of these and one or more of the portions 22 through 25. The parts just described are valuable for selective use of one of them at any one time, in inserting a portion of the implement under the outlying flange of the inserted cover on a paint can or the like, so as to permit comparatively few prying operations and so as to quickly and without splash producing shock to loosen and free the cover from the can.

Referring to the further characteristics of the pair of claws l2 and I3 and of the pair of lips l4 and it above referred to, which are features of the invention as now preferred to be embodied consequently as shown in the drawing, reference is now made to dot-dash line 27 of Fig. 1, which is unidirectional with the general line of extension of the implement. Referring to a perpendicular 28, drawn in dot-dash, struck from said line 21, the side of claw l3 which faces claw i2 is inclined at an angle of approximately 75 to the line 28, as indicated by dot-dash line 29.

Also, the facing edges of the lips M and I5 are arranged so that they extend at a similar angle to the line 28 as indicated by dot-dash lines 7 30 and 35 respectively, although there is not the same advantage in so extending said edge of the lip [5 as in the case of lip 15. As will further be noted, while the claw l2 and what may be called the neck portions M and of the hookover lips Hi and I5 are parallel with the line 27, the claw I3 is at the aforesaid angle to line 28. Finally, referring to the dot-dash line 32 of Fig. 2, it is pointed out that as here shown the edge at the free end of claw i3 is given an inclination like that measured by the relation of each of the dot-dash line 29, 39 and 3! to the dot-dash line 28 of Fig. 1; that is, said edge-inclination of claw 3 extends at an angle of about to the flat of the implement.

The purpose of these preferred characteristics of the claws and lips will become clear from a reference to Figs. 3 and now to be made.

Referring, then, to Fig. 3, the implement is seen with its end which carries claws l2 and I3 applied to a beaded bottom cap 33 on a container 3 3, with the claw l3 engaged under the bottom bead 35 of the cap to act as a lift member, when, with the claw i2 lying over the top of the cap, said claw i2 is caused to act as a fulcrum member by rocking the main length of the implement downward as indicated by the arrow 37.

Referring next to Fig. 4, the implement is here shown as engaging at its end which carries lips Hi and i5 applied to a non-beaded cap 36 on a container 39, with the free-end edge of the lip i-iengaged under the bottom of the cap to act as alift member, and with the free end edge of the lip l5 lying over the top of the cap. In this case, the lip l4 acts as the lift member, when, to cause the lip 15 to act as a fulcrum member, the

main length of the implement is rocked down- 4 ward as indicated by the arrow 40, the cap is easily lifted off the top of the bottle.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiments of my invention, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to the precise constructions herein disclosed and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications comll'lg within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. An implement for removing a cap from a jar, comprising a relatively wide plate member formed with a reduced end portion, and claws extended laterally from the top and bottom edges of said reduced end portion and projecting from one side of said plate member for engagement with top and bottom edges of the cap when the plate member is extended tangentially of the cap, one of said claws being located adjacent the outer end of said reduced end portion and engageable with the bottom edge of said cap and the other of said claws being located inward of the outer end of said reduced end portion and engageable with the top edge of said cap, said claws having laterally extending neck portions continuing into inwardly bent lips spaced from, but parallel to, the adjacent side of said plate member, said lips having their free edges inclined parallel to each other at an angle of inclination extending downwardly away from the outer end of said reduced end portion when said plate member is held in a proper position for engaging said ciaws with the top and bottom edges of the cap.

2. An implement for removing a cap from a jar comprising a thin plate member normally disposed in a vertical plane, vertically spaced claws extending laterally in the same direction normal to said plane and integral with said plate member, said claws being longitudinally offset with one positioned adjacent the free end of said plate member, a lip integral with each of said claws and normal thereto, said lips being directed toward each other and being in vertical alignment parallel to and ofiset from said plate member, each of said lips having an inclined edge, said inclined edges being parallel to each other and spaced relative to each other and inclined relative to the longitudinal axis of said plate member, whereby a cap having a projecting depending side wall can be removed by placing said plate member with its side formed with the claws facing said cap and by engaging the lip of said claw at the free end of said plate member beneath the bottom edge of said side wall and said other lip of said other claw on the top edge of gaid cap to form a fulcrum for said plate mem- KURT LEVY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Cummings May 22, 1928 

